How investors made a killing off the resurrection of Twinkies

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

published 25 December 2016

Private equity firms' top executives often make more than the heads of tech behemoths like Facebook and Apple, The New York Times reports. How? The secret lies in the story of the Twinkie: In early 2013, private equity firms spent $186 million to buy Hostess' snack-cake brands, including Twinkies. This year, the revived Hostess sold for $2.3 billion. But the company employs only 1,200 people, a fraction of the roughly 8,000 workers who worked at the snack maker in 2012.

Hostess is just one example of how the biggest investors earn their fortunes through reviving defunct companies — though oftentimes at the expense of their labor forces. Read more at The New York Times.